HJ SUN:
“LORD SUN’S TWENTY-ONE
ARTICLES”

AMONG THE MANY kah, “house laws,” and kakun, “house lessons,” left by warlords and other samurai, the group of twenty-one articles attributed to Hj Sun (1432?-1519), known as Sun-ji Dono Nijichi Kaj (Lord Sun’s Twenty-one Articles), is especially admired for the simplicity and practicality of what the articles say.

Sun (“Swift Cloud”), who originally called himself Ise Shinkur Nagauji, was an undistinguished wandering samurai well into his forties. In 1491, when he was nearly sixty years old, he took advantage of the rift between two branches of the Uesugi clan and established himself as lord of Izu Province, part of present-day Shizuoka Prefecture. From then on his influence and domain in the Kant region increased and in the end he founded the Hj clan that lasted for five generations. His success as a warlord derived from his generosity to the peasants, for whom he reduced taxes, and to his retainers, among whom he distributed most of what he gained.

Because a samurai of unremarkable military lineage seized control of a province, the year 1491 is often marked as the beginning of Japan’s “age of warring states.”

The following “lessons” are thought addressed to samurai retainers, rather than to the heirs of the Hj house.

Item: Above all, have faith in the Buddha and in Shinto deities.

Item: Rise, yes, very early in the morning. If you rise late, even your servants will become lax and unusable. You will be failing to do your duties, both official and private. If this begins to happen, you are bound to be given up by your master, so be extremely careful.

Item: In the evening, go to bed no later than two hours after sunset.¹ Night robbers are most likely to sneak in during the four hours around midnight. If you indulge in useless, long chattering in the evening and go to bed near midnight or even later, you’ll end up having valuables stolen and ruining yourself. Your reputation outside your household will also suffer. Don’t burn up wood and oil for no purpose in the evening.

Get up a few hours before sunup, wash yourself with cold water, and offer prayers. Put yourself in order and give instructions for the day to your wife, children, and retainers. Report to work before sunup. An old saying has it, “Go to bed an hour before midnight and get up a few hours before sunup,” but this depends on the person. Still, getting up a few hours before sunup is beneficial to you. If you sleep until after sunup or even close to noon, you won’t be able to report to work and carry out your duties, nor will you be able to do your own errands. This is no good. Your daily schedules will not be met.

Item: Before you wash your hands and face, go around and check the toilet, the stable, the garden, even how things look outside the gate. Then tell an appropriate person to clean the places that have to be cleaned first, and quickly wash your hands and face. Water may be available in abundance, but don’t simply dump the water you’ve used for gargling.² Though you’re in your own house, if you cough loudly, you’ll allow yourself to appear inconsiderate to others, and that’s unseemly; so cough, if you must, inconspicuously. As they say, “Bend under heaven, step softly on the ground.”³

Item: Offering prayers is for your own sake. Simply keep your mind straight and pliant, honest and law-abiding. Be respectful to those who are above you, and be compassionate to those who are below you. Accept things as they are: what you have as what you have, what you don’t as what you don’t. Doing so seems to accord with the wishes of the Buddha and Shinto deities. Even if you don’t pray, by keeping this in mind you will enjoy various deities’ protection. Even if you pray, though, if your mind is crooked, you’ll be abandoned by Heaven’s Way. So be careful.

Item: Don’t think your swords and clothes should be as good as those of other people. Be content as long as they don’t look awful. Once you start acquiring what you don’t have and become even poorer, you’ll become a laughingstock.

Item: Not to mention when you report to work, but even when you decide to stay in your house because of some illness or some errands to tend to, take care of your hairdo early.⁴ It is out of the question and careless of you to appear among people in an unkempt state. If you start becoming lax about yourself, even your servants will begin to imitate you. It’s unseemly to run around [trying to fix your hair hurriedly] simply because a colleague happens to come to visit.

Item: When you report to work, never go directly to see your master. Go to the waiting room and observe your colleagues and others. Present yourself to your master only when summoned. Otherwise, you may be shocked.⁵

Item: When your master calls your name, respond with a quick “Yes, sir!” even if you are sitting some distance from him, swiftly go forward, and, when you’re near him, crawl toward him. Listen humbly to what he has to say. Then quickly leave, do what you’re told to do, and report back to him what you’ve found, exactly as it is. Don’t try to show off your talent. Also, depending on the matter, seek the advice of some thoughtful people on the reply before conveying it to your master. Try not to credit yourself for everything.

Item: In your master’s presence, don’t linger near those gossiping. Stay away from them. Needless to say, you should never gossip about yourself or laugh conspicuously. If you do that, not only your superiors but also your colleagues will give up on you.

Item: There’s the saying, “Do everything with others, and you’ll have no trouble.”⁶ Rely on others in everything.

Item: Whenever you have a little bit of time for yourself, read a book. Always carry something with characters written on it with you and look at it when no one’s looking. Unless you accustom yourself to them, asleep or awake, you’ll forget them. The same is true of writing.⁷

Item: When you have to walk past the elders lined up in the corridor for the master’s audience, you must bend at the hips and lower your hands. It’s absolutely out of the question not to show deference or humility but to stomp past. All samurai must behave humbly, deferentially.

Item: Never say a single word of falsehood or even half of it to anyone, high or low. Even when joking, tell the truth. If you continue to say false things, it will become your habit and people will begin to torment you. In the end they’ll give up on you. You must be prepared to think it a disgrace for your lifetime if someone accuses you.

Item: Anyone without any knowledge of tanka composition must be said to be untalented and shallow. Study it.

Be careful about what you say, at any time. People can tell what you’re thinking from a single word.

Item: Whenever you have time off from your service to your master, work at horse-riding. Learn the basics from an expert, and learn the handling of the reins and other things on your own.

Item: Seek good friends in writing and learning. Avoid bad friends in go, chess, pipes, and flutes. Not knowing these things is not a disgrace for you, nor is there evil in learning them. It’s simply that you’d rather not waste your time on them.

Whether someone’s good or bad entirely depends on his friends.

Whenever three people take a road, there’s always one who’s worthy as a teacher. Choose that one person and follow him. By looking at the one who isn’t good, you correct your ways.⁸

Item: When you have time off from your service and go home, you should go from the stable to the rear of your house and repair the four walls and the fences and block the holes dogs make in fences. A careless maid might take the thatch from the eaves for kindling and, having taken care of the need of the moment, give no thought to what may happen later. Keep in mind that such things happen to everything.

Item: At sundown, close the gate tight and open it only when someone must come in or go out. Otherwise, something bad is bound to happen in the future.

Item: In the evening, check yourself the sources of fire in the kitchen and your wife’s room, firmly tell her to be careful, and make a habit of taking preventive measures against a fire from your neighbors. Do this every night. Noble or lowly, wives tend to have no thought about these things and to be lax, leaving valuables and clothes scattered about.

Even if you have servants, don’t think only of telling them to do everything. Do things yourself first so that you may know what they’re like. Only then think of having others do them.

Item: Always work at reading, writing, martial skills, archery, and horse-riding. There is no need to detail this. Hold literary skills in your left hand, martial skills in your right. This is the law from ancient times. Never neglect it.